Identity Under Totalitarian Rule
What the CED states
- Fuelled by racism and anti-Semitism, Nazi Germany — with the cooperation of some of the other Axis powers and collaborationist governments — sought to establish a "new racial order" in Europe, which culminated with the Holocaust.
- Every clause is doing work: the motive (racism and anti-Semitism), the actors (Nazi Germany, some other Axis powers, collaborationist governments), the project, and the outcome.
- Reporting this sentence accurately, in the CED's own terms, is the whole task of the subtopic.
Select both things the CED says fuelled the "new racial order".
The motive clause of a sentence in which every clause does work.
'Some' and 'collaborationist' are precise
- Some of the other Axis powers — not all, and the CED declines to generalise.
- Collaborationist governments names a distinct category: administrations that cooperated without being German.
- Accuracy about who did what is not a softening of the account; it is what makes the account true.
The CED says the project had the cooperation of...
'Some' is precise, and the CED declines to generalise.
The war's demographic effects
- World War II decimated a generation of Russian and German men; virtually destroyed European Jewry; resulted in the murder of millions in other groups targeted by the Nazis including Roma, homosexuals, people with disabilities, and others; forced large-scale migrations; and undermined prewar class hierarchies.
- Five consequences in one sentence, and the CED names the targeted groups explicitly rather than summarising them.
- Virtually destroyed European Jewry is its plainest statement of scale, and it should be quoted, not paraphrased away.
The motive, the actors, or the consequences?
Sort each element of the CED's account.
Select all the targeted groups the CED names explicitly.
The CED names them rather than summarising them.
The CED's qualifiers are precise, and precision is the point. It says some of the other Axis powers, and it names collaborationist governments as a distinct category — being exact about who did what is not a softening of the account; it is what makes the account true.
Select all the demographic effects the CED lists for the war.
Five consequences in one sentence.
Identity is what the subtopic is about
- The objective asks how cultural and national identities were affected by war and the rise of fascist/totalitarian powers.
- A regime that defines belonging by race changes what national identity means for everyone inside its reach.
- And the CED's demographic list records the result: populations removed, migrations forced, hierarchies undone.
The objective's period runs from 1914 to the ____.
So the identities affected include those formed afterwards.
Writing this subtopic
- Stay with the CED's own words: they are exact, and exactness is the respect the subject requires.
- Name the motive, the actors, the project, the outcome, and then the demographic consequences the CED lists.
- The period runs from 1914 to the present, so the identities affected include those formed afterwards.
A regime that makes belonging a matter of ancestry has told everyone within its reach that identity is no longer something one can hold, argue for, or change. The CED records what followed from that in a single sentence with five clauses, and none of the five is dispensable.
Fuelled by racism and anti-Semitism, Nazi Germany — with the cooperation of some of the other Axis powers and collaborationist governments — sought to establish a "new racial order" in Europe, which culminated with the Holocaust. World War II decimated a generation of Russian and German men; virtually destroyed European Jewry; resulted in the murder of millions in other groups targeted by the Nazis including Roma, homosexuals, people with disabilities, and others; forced large-scale migrations; and undermined prewar class hierarchies.